Ada Lovelace, mathematician and first computer programmer
Personal Life
Watercolour Painting of Ada, 1840, unknown artist
Augusta Ada King (née Lady Byron), Countess of Lovelace, commonly shortened to Ada Lovelace, was a mathematician and one of the first computer programmers. She was born on December 10th of 1815 and she died of uterine cancer on November 27th 1852. She is the only child of a marriage between famed poet Lord Byron and Anne Isabelle Milbanke, which ended 2 months after Ada's birth. After the separation of her parents she was placed in the sole custody of her mother when her father left England to live in Greece. At the age of 19 she was married to an aristocrat William King, who later became the Earl of Lovelace. Her marriage and motherhood of 3 children took some time away from her studies but her husband is said to have supported her academic studies. Education Due to her mother's resentment of Ada's fathers profession she hired a multitude of private tutors to educate Ada. As Ada's mother had a love of mathematics herself she encouraged her daughter in the direction of mathematics and science despite that being an uncommon area for a woman to be educated in at the time. Her many tutors included William Frend, a different William King then her future husband, Mary Sommerville of the Royal Astronomical Society, and through Charles Babbage she studied with Professor Augustus de Morgan, a professor of advanced mathematics at the University of London.
This is a part of Ada's notes on the article by Charles Babbage
Contributions to Computers
When Ada was only 17 she met Charles Babbage, the inventor and mathematician. The two became friends, with the much older Babbage serving as a mentor for Lovelace. Ada was fascinated with Charles' inventions, the difference engine and his plans for the analytical engine. The analytical engine was a programmable, multiple purpose computing machine. It was to be programmed using punched cards and idea coming from complex textile looms. Ada was later asked to translate and article on the analytical engine written by Italian engineer Luigi Federico Menabrea.
Ada's friend and mentor, Charles Babbage
In addition to the translation she added her own notes on thoughts and ideas, that ended up being 3x as long as the article itself. This work was published in 1843 in an English science journal, though she only used her initials A.A.L. in the journal. In her notes she theorized a way to make and engine repeat instructions, which is used today as looping in computers. She also described how codes could be made to handle letters and symbols in addition to just using numbers. due to this work Ada is credited as the first computer progammer despite dying long before the first computer was invented.
Posthumous Honours During her life Ada got very little recognition and her contributions were not truly discovered until the 1950s Her work was reintroduced to the world in Faster Than Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines by B.V. Bowden. Ada has also received many posthumous honours since her passing in 1852. In 1980 the US department of defence constructed a new computer language that they named Ada in her honour. In addition to that on the second Tuesday of each October is known as Ada Lovelace Day, which is an international celebration day of the achievements of women in the STEM fields. Video gives summary of the life of Ada Lovelace http://www.biography.com/people/ada-lovelace-20825323#synopsis - A complete biography of the life of Ada Lovelace http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/adalovelace - Explains Ada's role in Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/engines/ - Information on the working of the Analytical Engine
http://findingada.com - This is information about Ada Lovelace day as well as a brief summary of her life and accomplishments
mathematician and first computer programmer
Personal Life
Augusta Ada King (née Lady Byron), Countess of Lovelace, commonly shortened to Ada Lovelace, was a mathematician and one of the first computer programmers. She was born on December 10th of 1815 and she died of uterine cancer on November 27th 1852. She is the only child of a marriage between famed poet Lord Byron and Anne Isabelle Milbanke, which ended 2 months after Ada's birth. After the separation of her parents she was placed in the sole custody of her mother when her father left England to live in Greece. At the age of 19 she was married to an aristocrat William King, who later became the Earl of Lovelace. Her marriage and motherhood of 3 children took some time away from her studies but her husband is said to have supported her academic studies.
Education
Due to her mother's resentment of Ada's fathers profession she hired a multitude of private tutors to educate Ada. As Ada's mother had a love of mathematics herself she encouraged her daughter in the direction of mathematics and science despite that being an uncommon area for a woman to be educated in at the time. Her many tutors included William Frend, a different William King then her future husband, Mary Sommerville of the Royal Astronomical Society, and through Charles Babbage she studied with Professor Augustus de Morgan, a professor of advanced mathematics at the University of London.
Contributions to Computers
When Ada was only 17 she met Charles Babbage, the inventor and mathematician. The two became friends, with the much older Babbage serving as a mentor for Lovelace. Ada was fascinated with Charles' inventions, the difference engine and his plans for the analytical engine. The analytical engine was a programmable, multiple purpose computing machine. It was to be programmed using punched cards and idea coming from complex textile looms. Ada was later asked to translate and article on the analytical engine written by Italian engineer Luigi Federico Menabrea.
Posthumous Honours
During her life Ada got very little recognition and her contributions were not truly discovered until the 1950s Her work was reintroduced to the world in Faster Than Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines by B.V. Bowden. Ada has also received many posthumous honours since her passing in 1852. In 1980 the US department of defence constructed a new computer language that they named Ada in her honour. In addition to that on the second Tuesday of each October is known as Ada Lovelace Day, which is an international celebration day of the achievements of women in the STEM fields.
Video gives summary of the life of Ada Lovelace
http://www.biography.com/people/ada-lovelace-20825323#synopsis - A complete biography of the life of Ada Lovelace
http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/adalovelace - Explains Ada's role in Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine
http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/engines/ - Information on the working of the Analytical Engine
http://findingada.com - This is information about Ada Lovelace day as well as a brief summary of her life and accomplishments
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Lovelace.html - Includes many quotes both from her parents and explains Ada's Notes on the analytical engine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace#/media/File:Ada_Lovelace_portrait.jpg - Source of Picture #1